Father of 9/11 victim fights to preserve his son's memory

Published 10:32 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

In the town where Jason Sabbag grew up, captained the Greenwich High School tennis team to a state championship and returned for weekends and holidays, reminders of his life are constant.

Sabbag's name appears on a pair of park benches, one at Greenwich Point and the other overlooking the GHS tennis courts, as well as on a plaque near the entrance of Western Middle School.

Every year during the town's 9/11 memorial service, Sabbag's name is read without fail during a solemn roll call of local victims.

So when Ralph Sabbag heard that his son's name might be kept off the town's official 9/11 memorial because he wasn't living in Greenwich at the time of his death, he was incredulous.

"I frankly do not intend to let this go," said Sabbag, a longtime resident. "I owe him that."

Whatever it takes to make sure his son isn't forgotten, Sabbag said he will stop at nothing, including going all the way to the governor if necessary.

The father said he even helped solicit private donations for the memorial.

"In reality, whether they put his name or not is not going to bring him back. However, to deny that he was a Greenwich resident is unacceptable," Sabbag said.

Planners of the memorial, which will be located on a granite slab next to the recently renovated Great Captains Island lighthouse, remain at a stalemate over who should be listed on its plaque.

Some say it should be strictly limited to those who were town residents at the time.

If that criteria is used, the names of only half of the 24 victims with ties to Greenwich would be listed on the memorial, according to obituaries and articles published in the newspaper at the time. Most of those victims worked at the World Trade Center. Two were killed on the hijacked planes.

"My feeling toward the whole thing is it was the people who got up that morning and expected to take the train home that night to Greenwich. It wasn't people from Princeton (N.J.) or Bedford, N.Y.," Ed Bragg, chairman of the nonprofit group Return the Light, told Greenwich Time Friday. Messages seeking additional comment from Bragg were left Tuesday.

Working with the town's Chamber of Commerce, the group raised $305,000 in private donations toward the nearly $1.3 million lighthouse renovation project, which incorporated the memorial. The town paid for the rest.

Mary Ann Morrison, the chamber's president and chief executive, took a softer stance in an interview Tuesday.

"If this kid is a graduate of Greenwich High School, he undoubtedly will have his name on the plaque," said Morrison, who does not live in town herself.

Except for the year-and-a-half he had moved to New York City to work for Fiduciary Trust Co. International, an asset management firm in the World Trade Center, the younger Sabbag had spent most of his life in Greenwich, according to his father.

Sabbag, 26, was a state tennis champion at GHS who went on to graduate from Georgetown University with honors. He volunteered for Meals-on-Wheels of Greenwich and Safe Rides.

Sabbag's father rejected the philosophy that the memorial should be limited to those who commuted from Greenwich that day.

"Well, he took the train every Saturday and Sunday to come back home because this is home," Ralph Sabbag said. "This is where his friends were. This is where he had fun. This is where he grew up."

"Given the monumental tragedy, sensitivity should be provided to be as inclusive as possible," Tesei said.

Tesei said there is no doubt in his mind that Sabbag, who used to work out at the same gym he did, deserves to be recognized.

"Jason lived here. He grew up here. There is a distinction," Tesei said.

A number of the victims had looser ties to the town, however, some having been born at Greenwich Hospital or buried in St. Mary's Cemetery on North Street.

Tesei said the town should get to make the final call.

"It's going on town property, so I would think, yes," Tesei said. "I think it should be resolved. It shouldn't be a public spectacle."

Agreeing that "it's not our responsibility to decide whose name is there," Morrison defended limiting which ones do appear on the memorial.

"If you don't establish a criteria, then you're opening it up to everybody, and you have to decide where are you going to draw the line?" she said.

Morrison said she is planning to meet with Bragg Tuesday to discuss plans for the memorial plaque, which, less than three weeks from the eighth anniversary of the attacks, still has not been cast because of the dispute over the names.

Selectman Lin Lavery, who has also pushed for Sabbag's name for to be included on the memorial, lamented the controversy.

"To have this memorial be held up by this is unconscionable," Lavery said.

Ralph Sabbag said he is grateful for the support from elected officials for including his son, whose remains are expected to be returned to town for burial in the coming months.

"(This) is where he belongs," Sabbag said.

Staff writer Neil Vigdor can be reached at neil.vigdor@scni.com or at 203-625-4436.